


Don't Go

by BoopitybopCoodilybap



Category: Gone Series - Michael Grant
Genre: Gen, Howard you idiot, One Shot, i just got sad and wrote this okay
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-03-05
Updated: 2014-03-05
Packaged: 2018-01-14 14:46:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,026
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1270393
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BoopitybopCoodilybap/pseuds/BoopitybopCoodilybap
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Tomorrow is Howard's birthday...</p>
            </blockquote>





	Don't Go

"It's my birthday tomorrow." The statement came out of nowhere.

Not truly out of nowhere, though. Howard had been planning and waiting for just the right time to bring it up. It had to be when Orc was sober enough to comprehend it, yet drunk enough to not go completely ballistic.

From where he was lying now, on the couch, Orc sat up. But he sat up too fast, so his face scrunched up in pain as he brought his stone hand (still holding a brown bottle) to the side of his head.

"What?" He breathed out roughly. Howard didn't respond. "What?" He said again, almost yelling. He was angry.

Howard tried not to make eye contact with his roommate. "I said that it's my birthday tomorrow."

Instead of angry, Orc just looked sad, now. It was hard to tell, though. He didn't really have eyebrows anymore.

"How-" he burped. "How old you gonna be?"

Howard cleared his throat. "I'm, um, I'm turning fifteen."

Orc stared at Howard.

Howard stared at the floor.

A long and awkward silence pursued, interrupted only by the creaking sounds of Orc turning and sitting upright on the couch, during the process of which the couch actually broke and caved in. Howard flinched and sighed inaudibly. He was going to have to find a way to stop that from happening again; that was the fourth one this month.

Orc was the one that spoke, in the end. "You're not gonna... /go/, are you?"

"Whad'ya mean?" He asked, knowing perfectly well what Orc meant.

"Are you gonna take the Poof?"

Now comes in the speech he had been planning: "I was thinking about it."

Orc couldn't have looked more horrified if someone had told him that he could never have booze again. "No." He begun to shake his head a lot faster than was nescecary. "You can't. You can't go."

"Why?" Howard really meant the question. "What do I matter to you?"

Orc looked genuinely offended. "Everything. You get me my booze, you give me a place to stay-"

"Is that all I am to you? Is that all I am to /anyone/ in this hell-hole of a town?! That's exactly why I need to leave: the only reason I matter to anybody in this place is when I get them their crack, or-or name something! 

"But what the hell does that matter, either? Everything in this place is going to die sooner or later. Giving it a name isn't gonna change anything." He slumped down in his armchair when he had finished his rant, exhaling heavily. He stared at the frame of the door. Sighed again, and whispers, "It's not changing anything..."

"No!" Orc waved his hands in front of his face with the over exaggeration of a drunk. "Nonono. Howard, you're my best friend." He went quiet for a minute, again. Then, "You're my only friend..."

Howard didn't quite know how to react to that. Sure, he had always thought the same about Orc, but there was kind of an unspoken agreement between the two of them to never say it out loud. To, you know, uphold their images of manly-ness.

Who was he kidding? They were wimps. Both of them, though Howard was the only one who looked like it at first glance.

Orc... Orc was different. He looked terrifying. He was huge, an ugly mass of muscle and fat who you knew wasn't the least bit afraid to hurt you (or, at least, that used to be the way, but the girl... that had changed Orc's views on violence). But, something only Howard knew about him was that, inside, Orc was a complete coward. Howard was the brains, and Orc was the brawn, everyone knew that. But what they didn't know was that, sometimes, it was Howard that felt like the dumb one. That, occasionally, it was Orc who felt like the weakling.

It was one of those times for Howard right now. He felt like an absolute idiot.

"O-of course I don't want to leave you, Orc." Howard rubbed the back of his neck with his hand. "But I..." This was not going as planned. Howard kept thinking to himself 'don't give in don't give in don't give in, don't give in to your feelings!' But that clearly wasn't working. He was emotionally attached to the rock monster sitting in front of him, and there was no denying that.

Howard stood up and started pacing, muttering to himself. He apparently found the floor very interesting, because he wouldn't look up from it.

He was just about to spin on his heel and start pacing the other direction, when a huge stony hand reached out and grabbed his arm, pulling him towards the body it was attached to.

He pressed Howard against his chest, and the impact felt like falling off a roof and hitting a pile of wet sand to the smaller boy. Orc had no body heat that Howard could sense, but he wasn't entirely cold, either. Almost... humid. His chest rose and fell with slow, shaky breaths, deep inhales coming out as almost gasps between breaths.

Orc was crying, Howard realised.

"Don't. Leave." The sobbing boy stressed. "I ain't gonna stop you if you do, I don't wanna hurt you. But that's why you gotta stay: 'cuz I can't get you hurt. Ain't nobody knows what happens when you Poof. But I don't want you to do it an' find out it's somethin' bad.  
"You can't go. You're all I got..."

This was a role-reversal moment for Orc, too. His sensitive side was showing up more and more these days.

Howard grimaced. The sight of his friend crying felt like a stab to the heart (or maybe that was just the impact of slamming into him still ringing through his rib cage). Either way, Howard knew what he was going to do.

"I ain't leaving you, Orc." He whispered, balling his hands up into determined fists. "I ain't ever leaving you."

He felt his friend press the side of his larger head to the top Howard's own.

"I ain't ever gonna leave you, neither, Howard."


End file.
